As a result of the close-down of the UK by the British Government last night, we have made all the Buy/Sell areas read-only until we open back up again, so please have a look at the announcement linked here.

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About Brian G

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Although it looked as if there were two aerials on the spine of a Gnat, (plus one on the lower fuselage, aft of the rear cockpit), the 'aerial' immediately aft of the canopy was in fact a 'dummy' aerial.
IIRC: This dummy 'aerial' was in this position to 'straighten' the airflow disturbance caused by the actual upper UHF aerial across the fin and rudder.
HTH. Cheers, Brian

Simon:
The Emergency Oxygen bottle was a standard fit to all RAF Gnats and was fitted from day one.
The 'Solo Bars' normally were stowed under the nose hatch and, when they were fitted to a seat, they held the rear seat equipment, so that it could not move, for solo flight.
The two bars clipped together for stowage and consisted of a straight bar to retain the equipment to the seat pan and a second 'P'-shaped one that went over the emergency oxygen bottle, to hold it in position.
The oxy/mic connector was pugged into a fitting on the upper bar.
You did up the straps as if the seat was occupied, and stowed any spare length of straps so that they would not come loose.
The leg-restraints were caught under the lower bar and stowed in their normal position.
As far as I can remember, there was no anhedral in the tailplanes!
Hope this helps.
Cheers, Brian

Another point for those who will be building the Airfix 1/48th Gnat (soon!).
The two aerials, (and the forward one is a dummy one), on the spine are set at quite an angle, (see any photographs of the Gnat).
They were set at complimentary opposite angles so that the airflow over the fin and rudder was not disturbed.
Cheers, Brian

FYI:
IIRC - the original design of the Tornado had an extendable nose leg, (to give a better angle-of-attack for take off), which, by the time the production A/C came to be, was discarded as it was found not to be required - but they had made the NLG with twin shortening links to accommodate this design and so these were fitted to the original Tornado's.
Later NLG had only the single shortening link, on the forward face of the NLG - I have no idea when that MOD came about.
Cheers, Brian

Hello Brian. Re the Airfix 1/48th Gnat, I am curious about the experiemental Red Arrows Gnat scheme you refer to and suspect it is the one done in December 72 that no one knows the serial number of - unless you do? Cheers, Adrian

If you are interested in planning schemes for the new Folland Gnat, here is a trial scheme we flew on the Arrows which was not accepted.
file:///Users/Goodchap/Documents/Arrows%20Trial%20Scheme.jpg
Cheers, Brian

Chris,
If you read through the bumf in your first quoted Amazon ref., it says:
THIS IS A PRE-ORDER FOR THE HAWKER TYPHOON THAT IS DUE IN-STOCK BETWEEN THE 8TH - 12TH OF JULY New in 2014, a super detailed 1:24 scale model of the legendary ground attack Hawker Typhoon MkIb. This fantastic model has been created using our advanced CAD design used on all our new models, and we think youâ€TMll agree the results are stunning! Introduced into service in 1941, the Hawker Typhoon was designed to be the RAF's new ultimate interceptor fighter. Superseding the Hawker Hurricane it was hoped that the Typhoon, together with the Spitfire, would be a powerful and effective opponent of the Luftwaffe. However, it was not to be. Initially plagued by mechanical woes from the engine and suffering from a deficit in performance at high altitude, the Typhoon instead found fame as a low level attack aircraft, a role to which it was both well-suited and hugely effective.
Patience, we'll get it in due course!
Cheers, Brian

I think I'd agree with Joan.
IMHO, the 'colour' in the black-and-white photograph is the age old problem of this type of film standard.
The reasoning behind having a coloured band on the tanks would be, (IMHO), because of the material used to make these tanks, you'd have to make sure you hung them correctly on an A/C.
Having a red line, that would be obscured if the tanks are fitted correctly, would be a very good way of ensuring you had correctly installed the tanks on the A/C before you filled them with fuel.
Cheers, Brian

As a bit of background as to why this may have been in the mind of the designer of the kit:
I believe that the original design concept 'they' thought that the Tornado would need to have the Angle of Attack on take-off increased.
To do this they had designed the original NLG (Nose Landing Gear) to be extendable on the ground, for take-off.
You can tell this in the early A/C where there are two sets of Torque Links fitted to the NLG - one set to the front and the second to the rear.
From flight testing they found this was not required and the design was changed - although the prototype A/C continued to fly with the two sets of Torque Links.
Although, I believe some GR1's were delivered with this early standard of NLG, you will find that later A/C had only one set of Torque Links fitted to the front face of the NLG.
Cheers, Brian

Think they might be holding it back for the 50th Anniversary of the Red Arrows - being celebrated at RIAT on 11th July!
If they released it at that airshow think of how many they would sell on that weekend!
Cheers, Brian